The removal of a dam blocking fish passage on a popular creek east of Portland will begin this summer.

The Hemlock Dam on Trout Creek, a tributary of Washington's Wind River, has been the subject of a lawsuit between Skamania County, conservation groups and the federal government.

But this spring the county agreed to withdraw its opposition to removing the 76-year old dam, according to the Gifford Pinchot Task Force.

"Hemlock Dam removal will help restore wild steelhead to the Wind River watershed and make the Wind River system one of the only free-flowing rivers in Northwest from its headwaters to the confluence with the Columbia River," said Emily Platt, executive director of the task force.

About 13 miles of steelhead habitat will be restored in upper Trout Creek, which historically produced about 40 percent of the Wind River's steelhead, said Clark-Skamania Flyfisher's Craig Lynch.

The 26-foot high dam once supplied hydroelectric power and a diversion for agriculture, but it's no longer in use.

But it is on the National Register of Historic Places as the only surviving dam on the West Coast built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the 6.5 acre lake now behind it is used for recreation.